Whenever Lil’ Wayne comes up in some kind of hip hop debate, it starts a long circular conversation between people who think he’s the best thing since the iPod and people who think he might be more Rain Man than Superman. I’m usually on the “hater” side of that conversation as the Weezy fan’s tend to call it, but what they don’t understand is that I have great respect for Wayne as a rapper. Tha Carter I and II were both 4 cig albums in my book. But once he started doing off the wall vocoder songs and considering himself a Martian, I feel like he devolved from his former self considerably.

Today, I was perusing the innernuts when I came across a new song from the Hollygrove rapper that made me give a sigh of relief. “Real Rap” is exactly what the title alludes to; Lil’ Wayne speaking in his normal, unaffected voice, about real life issues that affect his day to day thinking over a beautiful sample mixed with some down south drums and synthesizers that change up more than Rihanna’s haircut.

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step your wayne-game up, that song is a new version of “Amen” from the Lil Weezyiana mixtape (the official one from Young Money) which is from like 2006, if I remember right. The beat is new, and he might have re-recorded the rap but the lyrics are the same.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Batman has sent Spidey packing as king of Hollywood’s box-office superheroes.

“The Dark Knight” took in a record $155.34 million in its first weekend, topping the previous best of $151.1 million for “Spider-Man 3″ in May 2007 and pacing Hollywood to its biggest weekend ever, according to studio estimates Sunday.

“We knew it would be big, but we never expected to dominate the marketplace like we did,” said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros., which released “The Dark Knight.” The movie should shoot past the $200 million mark by the end of the week, he said.

Hollywood set an overall revenue record of $253 million for a three-day weekend, beating the $218.4 million haul over the weekend of July 7, 2006, according to box-office tracker Media By Numbers.

“This weekend is such a juggernaut,” said Nikki Rocco, head of distribution for Universal, whose musical “Mamma Mia!” debuted at No. 2 with $27.6 million.

Factoring in higher admission prices, “Spider-Man 3″ may have sold slightly more tickets than “The Dark Knight.”

At 2007’s average price of $6.88, “Spider-Man 3″ sold 21.96 million tickets over opening weekend. Media By Numbers estimates today’s average movie prices at $7.08, which means “The Dark Knight” would have sold 21.94 million tickets.

Revenue totals for “The Dark Knight” could change when final numbers are released Monday.

The movie’s release was preceded by months of buzz and speculation over the performance of the late Heath Ledger as the Joker, Batman’s nemesis. Ledger, who died in January from an accidental prescription-drug overdose, played the Joker as a demonic presence, his performance prompting predictions that the role might earn him a posthumous Academy Award nomination.

“The average opening gross of the last five `Batman’ movies is $47 million. This tripled that, and for a reason,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers. “A big part of that was the Heath Ledger mystique and a phenomenal performance that absolutely deserves the excitement surrounding it.”

“The Dark Knight” reunites director Christopher Nolan with his “Batman Begins” star Christian Bale, whose vigilante crime-fighter is taunted and tested by Ledger’s Joker as the villain unleashes violence and chaos on the city of Gotham.

Overseas, “The Dark Knight” added $40 million in 20 countries where it began opening Wednesday, including Australia, Mexico and Brazil. The film opens in Great Britain this weekend and rolls out to most of the rest of the world over the next few weeks.

“The Dark Knight,” which cost $185 million to make, also broke the “Spider-Man 3″ record for best debut in IMAX large-screen theaters with $6.2 million. “Spider-Man 3″ opened with $4.7 million in IMAX cinemas.

“Every single show is sold out,” said Greg Foster, IMAX chairman and president. “We’re adding shows as much as we can, but we’re at 100 percent capacity.”

On opening day Friday, “The Dark Knight” also took in more money than previously counted, Fellman said. The film pulled in a record $67.85 million, up nearly $1.5 million from the studio’s estimates a day earlier.

The previous opening-day record also had been held by “Spider-Man 3″ with $59.8 million.

Women accounted for most of the audience for “Mamma Mia!”, which Universal opened as counter-programming to the male-dominated audience for “The Dark Knight.”

“With the crowded summer, we knew we would have to find the right weekend, and this seemed like the perfect one considering three-quarters of our audience was female,” Rocco said.

Based on the stage musical set to the tunes of ABBA, “Mamma Mia!” features Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgard, Julie Walters and Christine Baranski.

The weekend’s other new wide release, 20th Century Fox’s animated family flick “Space Chimps,” opened at No. 7 with $7.4 million.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.

07.20.08 at 7:50 pm

Mr. Rogers

wanna know why, cuz these verses is old as hell…

07.20.08 at 7:51 pm

Mr. Rogers

07.20.08 at 7:53 pm

Mr. Rogers

and for the dark knight….185 million to make? goddam…and how much of that was marketing….and the shit had the perfect climate….whats more amazing—dark knight or carter3?

07.20.08 at 8:09 pm

Douglas Howser

^ lol

07.20.08 at 9:08 pm

wit-E -

suprised this is on utube:

07.20.08 at 10:05 pm

EF Huttin

^ Okay. That was unexpected.

07.20.08 at 10:18 pm

wit-E -

LMFAO!!!

07.20.08 at 10:25 pm

Thugnificence: Learn the Six "P's" Young Blood!

The Suffix > all Wayne mixtapes

Jack >>> Heath (GBD)

07.20.08 at 11:45 pm

Black Canseco

A lot of Jay’s better verses are from old freestyles–or at least chunks of songs he started earlier and never finished.

07.20.08 at 11:56 pm

Big Fonz

suprised this is on utube:

————————————————————————————–

WTF were searchin for to find that?

07.21.08 at 12:14 am

wit-E -

hairy cat
LOL!!!!

07.21.08 at 1:03 am

Belve

Ok.. That made sense that you were searching for hairy cat. But the WTF factor on that was about a 4 or 5

07.21.08 at 4:43 am

Fresh

Weezy? eeehhh…

this is true he has degraded since The Carter 1 and 2. Even from 500 degreez. I think be different should be kept withing certain limits. At some point thinking too far outside the box causes you to lose people. Call it when being different goes wrong.

Fresh

07.21.08 at 3:06 pm

artois

I hate to go off subject but that video was maaad random! lol.

As for Wayne, I’m just not into the dude, I haven’t listened to enough of him to make judgements,. What I’ve heard thus far doesn’t really wanna make me listen to any more if you know what I mean. Now Andre 3000 is a different matter…..

Okay, I’m done.

07.21.08 at 9:47 pm

nigga name known

I used 2 think lil wayne sucked…then i like him 4 a minute…then he sucked again…